I grew up reading comics. Superhero comics. I have no idea whether other kids (of either gender) in my class read them, I didn't bring them to school so we wouldn't have talked about them. I certainly don't remember ever concealing my enjoyment of them. It really never would have occurred to me that comics were "boy toys." I never felt excluded from the readership. I still don't. I read them, I enjoy them, and more often than not I'm happy with my purchases.
My daughters read comics as well, and I don't think the idea of comics as a male-identified genre has ever occurred to them, either. (Not that anyone else in their classes is likely to be a fan.)
Obviously I don't personally consider comic books to be a gender-identified genre so much as something of a fringe genre. I've always been a fairly fringe person so that's fine with me. :)
But I'll admit that my own perceptions here may be flawed, since I've never felt that connected to mainstream femininity. So for the sake of argument...
I've never been a reader of romance novels so I can't say for sure that there's anything specifically female-oriented about them in terms of subject matter, writing style, or whatever, but there is certainly a strong public perception that romance novels (like soap operas) are for women, and there's apparently a strong identification with women within the industry. But that's not a content issue, and it's only partly an issue of promotion.
In fact, I'd guess that one reason there may not be many men reading romance novels has to do with the stigma attached to it--that a real man wouldn't be interested in them.
It's not just the romance novels--there tends to be a similar stigma attached to any field or activity that's commonly associated with women. There are still men who won't wash the dishes because, to them, it's women's work.
In fact, there is always less of a problem with women taking on jobs, hobbies, tasks traditionally associated with men than there is the other way around. Think of women as doctors, think of men as nurses. Think of clothing--women's clothing often includes items that were traditionally worn by men, but how often does it go the other way? Think of names--many men's names have been used by women with little fanfare, but it doesn't happen the other way around (remember "A Boy Named Sue"?).
Why is that, do you think? Well, what is male tends to be taken as the norm, the standard. (Thus the old terms "lady lawyer" or "male nurse"--because at one time these things were unexpected.) What is female is outside the norm, it's something different. So when a woman reads Sports Illustrated or Popular Mechanics, that might be considered unusual but it's not shameful, because it's at worst a lateral move, a move that takes her into the society standard. When a man reads Cosmopolitan or Woman's Day, that's a move outside of the standard. Calling a man a woman or a girl is an insult; calling a woman a man--well, it just seems strange, there isn't a similar implication at all.
So that romance novels and superhero comic books, even if gender-identified genres, wouldn't really occupy the same gender-specific space because, in general, women would be far more comfortable reading Marvel or DC comics than men would be reading Harlequin romances.
I suppose that could account for some of us feeling that superhero comics are a male-identified genre and others of us feeling that they're not--that in some ways it can be hard to tell the difference. :)
By the way, "gender-identified genre"? Excellent tongue-twister. Five times fast, try it!
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